WahlheYmatPost — Understand How To Berlin

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  • Wahl-Kompass: Understanding Berlin Politics Takes More Than Speaking German

    Wahl-Kompass: Understanding Berlin Politics Takes More Than Speaking German

    Ahead of Berlin’s September 2026 election, Nina Harz wanted to understand what the political parties were actually promising. What started as a personal spreadsheet became Wahl-Kompass, an online platform comparing ten parties across 65 topics in eleven languages. We spoke with Nina about making political information more accessible, tracking election promises, and why understanding Berlin politics requires more than speaking German.
  • You Cannot Be Both a Host and a Guest

    You Cannot Be Both a Host and a Guest

    When does a guest become a member of society? And who gets to decide? Ivan Gabor explores the relationship between citizenship, voting rights, and belonging in a city shaped by people from around the world.
  • From Corporate Law to Kindergarten: Finding Belonging Between Brazil and Berlin

    From Corporate Law to Kindergarten: Finding Belonging Between Brazil and Berlin

    Ivan Custódio grew up in a working-class family in Brazil and worked his way toward a prestigious career in law. But after moving to Berlin, his life took an unexpected turn. Today, he works as a kindergarten teacher – a job he finds meaningful and intellectually challenging in its own way. His story is about belonging, breaking free from expectations and redefining what success really means.
  • Social Psychologist Ulrich Wagner on How Fear and Prejudice Fuel the Far Right

    Social Psychologist Ulrich Wagner on How Fear and Prejudice Fuel the Far Right

    Why do we so easily divide people into “us” and “them” – and when does this natural tendency turn into prejudice, discrimination and hostility? In an interview with WahlheYmatPost, social psychologist Prof. Dr. Ulrich Wagner explains how feelings of threat can be politically exploited, why simple solutions are so appealing in uncertain times, and how contact between different groups can help counter polarization.
  • From Distrust to Dialogue: Why We Need to Meet

    From Distrust to Dialogue: Why We Need to Meet

    Political trust is not just about voting rights. It is also about feeling heard, respected and recognised as part of society. Ivan Gabor argues that rebuilding trust requires more than political promises – it starts with conversations between people who might otherwise never meet.
  • The Participation Paradox: Why Political Trust Doesn’t Always Translate Into Votes

    The Participation Paradox: Why Political Trust Doesn’t Always Translate Into Votes

    Immigrants often arrive with greater trust in democratic institutions than the native-born population. But that trust does not necessarily translate into political participation – and over time, it tends to decline. New European research raises an important question for Berlin, where hundreds of thousands of residents could not vote in the recent state election at all.
  • We talk a lot. But what do we actually do?

    We talk a lot. But what do we actually do?

    We vote, governments govern, and we expect politics to solve our problems. But what if democracy needs more from us? Drawing lessons from Taiwan and Berlin 1989, Ivan Gabor asks how civic movements can reclaim the power to shape society – instead of waiting for someone else to do it.
  • Democracy at the Späti: What Berlin’s Symbolic Election Revealed

    Democracy at the Späti: What Berlin’s Symbolic Election Revealed

    What happens when voting moves out of polling stations and into Berlin’s neighbourhood Spätis? This summer, the Migrationsrat Berlin held symbolic elections across the city to give people without voting rights a space to make their voices heard – and to start conversations about political participation, exclusion and democracy. WahlheYmatPost spoke with Mallika Basu and Maria Vittoria Celardo about what they learned from the experiment, the conversations that surprised them and why they believe voting rights in Germany need to change.
  • From Kyiv to Berlin: War Changed His Path, but Not His Dream

    From Kyiv to Berlin: War Changed His Path, but Not His Dream

    At 15, Oleksandr Drevytskyi left Kyiv with his mother and their dog Ozzy after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. In Berlin, he found himself navigating a new language, a new school system and an uncertain future. Four years later, he is studying mathematics at Humboldt University – and helping other Ukrainians find their own way through the city.
  • Strangers by the Spree: Inside Berlin’s Outdoor Latin Dance Community

    Strangers by the Spree: Inside Berlin’s Outdoor Latin Dance Community

    Just a few hundred metres from Berlin Central Station, strangers meet by the Spree to dance salsa and bachata together. Drawing on her own experience of joining the crowd, Borbála Hanna Dévai explores how Berlin’s outdoor Latin dance scene brings together people of different ages, backgrounds and professions.
  • StimmlosTrend 2026: 96 Percent Would Vote If They Could

    StimmlosTrend 2026: 96 Percent Would Vote If They Could

    The final results of WahlheYmat’s StimmlosTrend are in. They show a striking willingness to participate among international Berliners without voting rights – but also widespread concern about the city’s future and a strong sense of having little influence over it.
  • A Mayor Tandem for Berlin

    A Mayor Tandem for Berlin

    What if Berlin’s nearly one million residents without a vote had their own representative at the very top of the city? A second mayor, working alongside the elected Regierende Bürgermeister, could give international Berliners a visible voice in how the city is shaped. A radical idea? Perhaps. But in a city where roughly one in four residents cannot vote in state elections, it may be time to rethink what political representation can look like.
  • No German Passport? You May Still Have a Vote in Berlin 

    No German Passport? You May Still Have a Vote in Berlin 

    Around 240,000 non-German EU citizens are eligible to vote in Berlin’s district elections on September 20. A new series of multilingual events aims to explain how the election works – and how EU citizens can help shape the neighbourhoods they call home.
  • “Berlin taught me to dislike the word integration” 

    “Berlin taught me to dislike the word integration” 

    Berlin was the city that changed everything for Marilena Chatziantoniou. After more than two decades working in humanitarian aid around the world, she founded Just-Go-For-It to help people recognise opportunities rather than obstacles. In this interview, she explains why she rejects the word “integration”, why community matters more than bureaucracy, and why she believes participation is something we choose every single day.
  • What is Germany’s greatest asset?

    What is Germany’s greatest asset?

    Germany doesn’t need to become more German. It needs to become better at turning its greatest asset—its reputation as an open, reliable, and innovative country—into a magnet for people and ideas from around the world.
  • Migrants With Degrees Are Not What Germany Is Looking For

    Migrants With Degrees Are Not What Germany Is Looking For

    As state-funded German courses become harder to access, many migrants are left trapped between limited language skills and low-income jobs. At the Lohana Berkins Center in Berlin, Darío Farcy and his team are trying to break this cycle through free education, solidarity, and community organizing inspired by Latin American grassroots movements.
  • Stay: The New Migration Challenge Germany Can’t Ignore

    Stay: The New Migration Challenge Germany Can’t Ignore

    Germany urgently needs international talent — yet one in four newcomers is considering leaving again. In his latest reflection, Ivan Gabor argues that the real challenge isn’t only attracting workers, but building a society where they want to stay. He calls for a bold narrative shift: a Germany that integrates itself into an inclusive, collaborative, future-ready reality.
  • “We Can’t Let Protection Become a Privilege”

    “We Can’t Let Protection Become a Privilege”

    Representing over 90 organizations, the Migrationsrat e.V. (Migration Council Berlin) works at the intersection of policy, community empowerment, and rights advocacy. In this interview, project manager Vicky Germain explains why racialized migrants from Ukraine still face exclusion, how shrinking funding threatens essential support structures, and why solidarity must be practiced — not merely proclaimed.
  • Neustart Berlin: A Fresh Start Without Everyone in the Room

    Neustart Berlin: A Fresh Start Without Everyone in the Room

    We were at the Neustart Berlin Conference — to see how Berliners imagine a bright new future for their city.
  • Berlin, Hold My Book: Why Physical Still Beats Digital

    Berlin, Hold My Book: Why Physical Still Beats Digital

    Algorithms may know our browsing history, but they don’t know our souls. Walter Phippeny travels from the small-town bookstores of his childhood to the indie shops and cultural havens of Berlin — arguing that real discovery, real community, and real magic still live on physical shelves, not in digital feeds.
  • Remembering as Resistance – How AKEBI Confronts Racism in Berlin

    Remembering as Resistance – How AKEBI Confronts Racism in Berlin

    AKEBI e.V. is reshaping Berlin’s remembrance culture, challenging racism and right-wing extremism, and amplifying marginalized voices across the city’s post-migrant communities. In our interview Erkin Erdoğan, project lead at AKEBI explains why Berlin needs strong civil society voices now more than ever.
  • The Berlin Lesson: Trust People, Not Bureaucracies

    The Berlin Lesson: Trust People, Not Bureaucracies

    Ivan Gabor explores how Berlin’s vibrant civic life awakened a new understanding of community, responsibility, and democracy — and why grassroots spaces succeed where the state so often fails.
  • How Audrey Tang Is Rebooting Democracy — and What Berlin Can Learn from Taiwan

    How Audrey Tang Is Rebooting Democracy — and What Berlin Can Learn from Taiwan

    At the Berlin Freedom Conference, Ivan Gabor met Audrey Tang, Taiwan’s trailblazing Digital Minister, whose radical yet practical ideas show how democracy can thrive in the digital age. From crowdsourced policymaking to fighting deepfakes with citizen assemblies, Tang’s vision proves that participation, not perfection, is the future of governance.
  • The Power of Ehrenamt: Finding Connection Through Volunteering in Berlin

    The Power of Ehrenamt: Finding Connection Through Volunteering in Berlin

    When the world feels heavy and isolating, one of the best ways to push back is simple: help someone else. In his latest piece, Walter Phippeny reflects on volunteering in Berlin — from washing dishes at the Bahnhofsmission to helping out at Give Something Back to Berlin — and discovers how Ehrenamt can offer both purpose and belonging in a city that often feels too big and too fast.
  • Six Pictures from the Future — A Glimpse into Tomorrow’s Berlin

    Six Pictures from the Future — A Glimpse into Tomorrow’s Berlin

    This week marks the launch of the WahlheYmatPost campaign — and we want to give you an insider’s look behind the scenes. We hope you’ll convince everyone around you to subscribe to WahlheYmatPost!
  • Giving Voice to Eastern European Migrants: The Polnischer Sozialrat’s Work for Equality

    Giving Voice to Eastern European Migrants: The Polnischer Sozialrat’s Work for Equality

    Dr. Kamila Schöll-Mazurek leads one of Germany’s oldest Polish migrant organizations, offering crucial support to Eastern Europeans navigating Berlin’s complex bureaucracy. In this interview, she discusses why nearly half of Germany’s migrants remain invisible in public discourse, how recent political rhetoric has deepened social divisions, and what it takes to turn academic research into real-world change for thousands of people seeking equality and recognition.
  • “Berlin Modern” — Is This the Modern Berlin?

    “Berlin Modern” — Is This the Modern Berlin?

    Berlin is building another cultural landmark — the vast and gleaming Berlin Modern. But as cranes rise over the Kulturforum, a deeper question emerges: what kind of spaces does our city truly need? Ivan Gabor reflects on Berlin’s obsession with museums and imagines something different — a living, shared house for the people, a HeymatHaus where belonging itself could be built.
  • Welcome to the Club: How Vereine Can Turn Berlin from a City of Strangers into a Home

    Welcome to the Club: How Vereine Can Turn Berlin from a City of Strangers into a Home

    Twenty-five years after Bowling Alone warned of fading community life, the problem feels more urgent than ever. In Berlin, newcomers often struggle to find belonging amid the city’s famous aloofness — yet Germany’s culture of Vereine, from choir groups to hacker clubs, holds a timeless antidote. For one Berliner-by-choice, joining a gaming Verein didn’t just improve his German — it gave him a home.

Diverse voices tell the complete truth.

WahlheYmatPost — Understand How To Berlin

Weekly guide for Berlin’s international community

Quick stories, local events, and ways to take part, right in your inbox — made with Berliner Morgenpost.

Your data matters to us — see our privacy policy.

This is a cooperation with Berliner Morgenpost. You can subscribe to their newsletters here.

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